Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Cornwall Day 4: 365 Doodles Day 277

Wednesday - The powercut turned out to be the fact that I hadn't put any coins in the electricity meter. The fact I didn't know there was an electricity meter didn't help. It was a problem soon rectified, however, and I decided to spend the day - or a goodly chunk of it - in my favourite town in Cornwall: St Ives. The sun was shining once again - I've been so lucky with the weather - as I drove to Lelant Saltings railway station to take the park and ride. It's one of the prettiest train routes in the UK; it's just four miles long but it wends its way along the cliffs above the Hayle estuary and Carbis Bay with the most beautiful views across St Ives Bay towards Gwithian and the Godrevy light.

Arriving in St Ives itself, I started meandering up and down the main streets, visiting all of the art galleries. There are hundreds of them ranging from places like The Craftsman Gallery selling huge, expensive pieces by artists like Matthew Lanyon to tiny little built-in-your-front-room galleries such as the one where Alexandra Dickens exhibits her richly colourful abstracts. A new find for me this trip was the work of Sean Taylor whose clever, happy graphic paintings of Cornish places were refreshing and put a big smile on my face. Here's his St Michael's Mount:

Apart from the seafront and a couple of streets just about navigable by car, most of St Ives consists of 'downalongs'; tiny winding alleyways and cut-throughs that are great fun to explore. And you can't go more than a couple of minutes before finding yet another gallery or artist's studio. I met a lot of new people this time and bought prints by Gerry Plumb and St Ives Art Club painter Keith Bennett (see cow painting below). I stopped off at the Beach Restaurant for a delicious Newlyn crab salad and then, because the sun was so glorious, the only thing to do was head for the harbour and a Uren's Cornish ice cream. Nom.

I took a walk out onto Smeaton's Pier to wave to the fishermen as they came back with their hauls and to watch the very tame turnstones and sparrows weaving their way in among the drying crab and lobster pots looking for tubeworms, sea lice and leftover bait.

It's always a wrench to leave St Ives but I had an evening dinner date with my brother and family. Little did I realise, however, that I'd end up being roped into running an art class for my sister in law's Brownie pack. It was great fun though and I had them creating all manner of monsters with which to decorate their hut for their Halloween party. And it led to today's new doodle:

'This is not a stocking filler - this is a real book. Buy several copies and keep one' - Daily Telegraph

'Quite simply the best way to spend time when not shopping, sleeping or preparing food' - Tony Hawks (author of Around Ireland with a Fridge)

'Can I recommend a book? It’s Joined-Up Thinking by Stevyn Colgan. The book’s packed with great info, from the derivation of the phrase ‘letting the cat out of the bag’ to the name for the thin bits of a cricket bail. Spigots, since you ask' - Mark Mason (author of The Importance of being Trivial)

'He connects each piece of his trivia puzzle in a concise, chatty, easy to follow, even logical, manner. This free-flowing style does not, thankfully, lend itself to pause and evaluation, but does allow for a great deal of chuckling and chin-stroking. He is the master of the trivial, the collector and cataloguer of the forgotten and inane - but no matter how worthless and unnecessary the information, Colgan has the knack of making it all sound intensely fascinating' - New Zealand Herald

'Stevyn Colgan has a theory; everything in the world can be connected through 'six degrees of information'. Trying to prove it takes us up some strange alleys but his engaging style means we don't get stuck down the road of intellectual whimsy' - Maxim

'It's a very smart style to a trivia book, and will I am sure be one of the hits of the forthcoming season' - The Bookbag

‘Stevyn Colgan's book, 'Joined-Up Thinking', could well be turned into a pub quiz or even a TV show. The latter could be even more of a possibility as Colgan has connections to the 'QI' BBC TV show. You're going to walk away from this book knowing a lot more than when you started.’ - SF Crows Nest

'How Colgan manages to find all these connections, unravel them and create something coherent and entertaining out of them is beyond me. But I'm glad he took the time, as the result is vastly fascinating and had my mind whirring round after itself for hours - immense fun!' - Falmouth People

Also on Sale

Praise for Henhwedhlow

‘All power to Stevyn Colgan and his project to preserve Cornish myth, legend and song. Who knows; as a result some Penzance Wagner may write the Cornish Ring Cycle and won’t the world be pleased? There’s more to Cornwall than Padstow, pasties and ‘Piss off you grockles’ and Colgan is doing the ancient kingdom a great service.’ - Stephen Fry

‘Jumping from the 19th to the 21st century, Stevyn is taking an essential element of our Cornish culture and bringing it bang up-to-date. With the aid of the very clever artwork he aims to do this in a way that even kids sitting their exams will be tempted to bring the book to school so as to take an occasional peek under the desk for a spot of well-deserved humour.’ - Howard Curnow (Cornish bard and storyteller)

'The best book I've ever seen for helping you to learn the Cornish language or practice reading it. Brilliant fun too' - Cornish Voice